Membership 

Membership in the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives is open to worker cooperatives, other democratic workplaces, developers of worker cooperatives, and allied organizations and individuals who support the worker cooperative model. Read below for member classes.

Worker Cooperative
Workplaces which are democratically owned and governed by paid workers, meeting the definition set forth in the CICOPA World Declaration on Cooperative Worker Ownership (also known as the Oslo Declaration) . Developers who are organized into worker cooperatives should join as Worker Cooperative members.

Democratic Workplace
Workplaces which are democratically owned and governed, but which may not meet the definition set forth in the Oslo Declaration. Examples: volunteer-run collectives, workplaces transitioning to worker cooperative status, democratically governed workplaces whose workers do not own shares (often incorporated as nonprofit corporations), democratic ESOPs 100% owned by their workers.

Federation Partner
Associations of three or more democratic workplaces joined together for purposes of mutual aid, for example regional or local groups like NoBAWC, PAWC and VAWC. Federation Partner joins as an organization (individual workplaces join separately).

Cooperative Developer
Developers of worker cooperatives that are not themselves organized as worker cooperatives. (Developers that are organized as worker cooperatives should join the USFWC as Worker Cooperative Members.)

Startup Workplace
Groups, organizations, or workplaces that are in the process of creating a worker cooperative or democratic workplace. Startup Workplace membership is provisional and will be re-evaluated annually.

Associate
Organizations that support, in theory and practice, the worker cooperative model and the US Federation, but are not themselves worker cooperatives. Examples: consumer cooperatives, housing cooperatives, student worker cooperatives, democratic ESOPs with 51% or greater worker ownership, nonprofit economic justice groups, labor organizations, cooperative lenders, other membership groups, regional federations, and trade associations.

Individual
Individuals who support, in theory and practice, the worker cooperative model and the US Federation.